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Vikings Legacy

The Vikings traveled over and beyond Europe in their prime. They a most known for their ruthless pillaging of European towns however they were a quite advanced society that left a lasting impact on the places they encountered. The Viking Age impacted the areas which it reached through their organized raiding of European villages, their economically strong trading industry, and their advanced sailing and navigation skills.

The Vikings are widely known for their successful raiding of northern coastal communities and with good reason. They used successful tactics to ensure the outcome of their raids. The raids were well planned out ahead of time and organized in a manner in which the attack would happen too suddenly for any substantial defense to form. The Vikings were able to loot villages for their wealth and resources easily. In consequence they left much destruction and established a lasting impression of themselves as barbarians. A positive outcome of their raids included the fact that they resulted in interaction between cultures. Their expeditions took them to faraway places and the Vikings were able to create detailed maps of the area they traveled and eventually establish a trade industry.

As mentioned before, their travels displayed their skill and proved the Vikings had to potential to be a highly successful and advanced society. On several occasions, they established peaceful trading relationships with civilizations. One example is the Byzantine Empire. Because of Constantinople’s ideal location and access to a variety of goods, the Vikings engaged in constant trade with the empire. They also played a role in protecting the waters around Constantinople. The Vikings left an impact of European cultures by integrating them into trade with the Byzantine Empire. Along with goods, ideas, cultures, and religions spread to Europeans as a result of the Vikings and their trade industry. The Vikings were master sailors. Their boats could sail in shallow water...

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...THE LAST VIKING
The Viking era in European history may be said to run very roughly from about 775 A. D., when the Norse longships suddenly burst on a startled world that had only the vaguest idea that Scandinavia even existed, until 1066 and the Battle of Stamford Bridge. The last true Viking chieftain and one of the most colorful characters in Viking history was King Harald Hardraada of Norway.
In their pagan days the Norse practiced polygamy, which was one reason for the overcrowding which produced so many land-hungry and adventurous young men ready to go sailing off in the dragon ships. In the ninth century Harald Fairhair was a minor Norse ruler who had the usual collection of wives, but there was a singularly lissome young maiden he wished to add to his collection named Ingeborg. But Ingeborg turned him down on the grounds that his kingdom was too small; no doubt she was a kind of Norse Valley Girl type who liked to shop til she dropped and Harald's piece of turf was too small for her expensive tastes. Well, Harald showed her. He spent a number of years conquering all of Norway, and in due course claimed his reward, nailed his hottie and produced a whole dynasty of swashbuckling kings and adventurers who spent the next two hundred years raising all kinds of hell.
Harald Hardraada's tale begins with a great grandson of Harald Fairhair, one Olaf Tryggvason, being baptized as a Christian as part of a...

...﻿VIKINGS IN AMERICA? who am I?
Voyage to a new land
The Vikings loved their stories – “sagas” – good to fill in the time in those long, dark winters. For a long time historians have known of stories which appear to describe Vikings traveling to America, although not everyone was convinced it really happened. We are going to take a closer look at the evidence, and investigate this for ourselves. Let’s start with a primary source, an extract from one of those ancient sagas:
We join Leif Eriksson as he leads his crew from Labrador - which he named "Woodland" - to Newfoundland.
"Now sailed they thence into the open sea with a northeast wind, and were two days at sea before they saw land, and they sailed thither and came to an island which lay to the eastward of the land, and went up there and looked round them in good weather, and observed that there was dew upon the grass. And it so happened that they touched the dew with their hands, and raised the fingers to the mouth, and they thought that they had never before tasted anything so sweet.
After that they went to the ship and sailed into a sound which lay between the island and a promontory which ran out to the eastward of the land, and then steered westward past the promontory.
It was very shallow at ebb tide, and their ship stood up so that it was far to see from the ship to the water. But so much did they desire to land that they did not give themselves time to wait until...

...What impact did the Vikings have on North Britain?
Shortly before the ninth century, North-west Europe was exposed to raids and attacks from the Scandinavians. They had discovered the wealth that could be obtained from the richer communities of Britain and Frankia, both in currency and natural resources (the latter being found especially in Ireland). As time went on, during the course of the ninth century, the leaders of the attacks on these countries grew more ambitious and soon there were different motives for raiding these places. Many leaders had become content to stay and settle permanently in these abundantly richer countries. This process of Viking settlement led to the integration of two cultures, between the peoples of the settled countries and the Vikings, this integration enveloped languages and religion mainly. This essay will seek to distinguish what impact the Scandinavian settlement had on the region of North Britain, in particular Scotland and the islands surrounding the coast of Scotland. Firstly to be able to fully assess what impact was had, one firstly must look at the nature of society and settlement before the Scandinavian invasion.
By the end of the Roman occupation in Britain, the area that we now call Scotland consisted of many different Kingdoms. There were four distinct groups within the borders that are now Scotland. In the east were the Picts with Kingdom between Forth and Shetland. While in the...

...infants".
Above are a few of the terms used by the Constantinople patriarch Photius to describe Vikings and their actions; but similarly horrific descriptions of the Vikings are to be found in numerous sources, Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh and the writings of Alcuin of Lindisfarne to name just two. To a large extent this image remains, even today, the stereotypical image of Scandinavians during the "Viking Age". However this is a very one-sided view, and ignores the full picture. A society where everyone behaved like the men described in the above quote simply would not last, let alone reach the degree of organisation that existed, for example, in Denmark. The way Vikings are viewed in countries outside the Scandinavian region is slowly changing, but unfortunately the classic Viking stereotype still reigns. In order to get a fairer and more balanced view of the Vikings, it is necessary to look at the topic from the point of view of the Vikings themselves as well as from that of outsiders. This can be found in the sagas.
The sagas "Graenlendinga Saga" and "Eirik's Saga"; are two of the best known Icelandic sagas, since they are the main literary sources for the Vikings in North America. Therefore there has been a tendency to study them from a very narrow point of view, with the primary objective of using them to establish the exact locations of the parts of...

...﻿
The Vikings
The Vikings were extraordinary mariners from modern-day northern Germany who traveled and settled in areas throughout Europe, Asia, and the north Atlantic islands from the late 800s to the early 1100s A.D. Because of their amazing ability to travel by sea, archaeologists have wondered if the Vikings ever reached North America. The Vinland Sagas are two Icelandic documents that contain information regarding the travels of Viking explorers in the Americas. These two documents are called: The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Erik the Red. It converses about a Norse explorer who had led the exploration into the Americas and what they call, “Vinland.” And because of numerous findings in North America during the 19th century, more and more people are beginning to believe that they did arrive in the Americas and they did settle there for a period in time.
The Existence of Vikings Prior to the New World
Today many believe that Christopher Columbus had discovered the Americas. However, there were Europeans that had arrived in the new world long before Columbus had. These people are known as the Norsemen, or today: the Vikings. This is a very controversial topic in the world of science and many people believe it and others do not. This theory was not active in the public until the popular author, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,...

...﻿The word Viking, really means "Pirate" in Norse, is used as a term, for the people who lived in Denmark, Norway and Sweden during the early Middle Ages.
They are most famous for the Viking raids of the Middle Ages and people often think of them as savage and bloodthirsty. Though many did have a life devoted to raiding and warfare, the vast majority of the Vikings lived from farming, fishing, and etc.
Law
The Vikings had a complex legal system. The word "law" is actually a Viking word. When a Viking was charged with a crime, he went to the 'ting', a court, where a jury of 12, 24 or 36 convicted or declared the viking innocent.
A common way to solve disputes between two parties was with a duel. The first Viking's blood to touch the ground lost the case. They believed that the gods were on the winners side and they wouldn't let the innocent person lose.
Clothing
Wool was used to make clothes. Wherever the Vikings settled, they brought sheep with them for the wool. The clothes were made by women who also dyed them with minerals or vegetables for different colors.
The men put on a long woolen shirt and long trousers which were held up by a drawstring. They also put a long coat on top if the weather required it. During battle, the Vikings used a shield, a helmet and a mail-chain to protect themselves.
Religion
At the beginning of the...

...﻿Rachel Halderman
Ms. Hollander
History 9 Per. 6
11-21-14
Vikings
When most people think of Vikings, they immediately picture muscular men, dressed in furs, wearing iron helmets with horns, sailing over oceans in dragon themed wooden boats, looking for new land to raid, and trying to slaughter everyone. Most think of them as fearless in fight, bloodthirsty vandals. Vikings’ culture and way of life is far less barbaric than what people think. (History.com)
Vikings were actually the first people to discover America way before Columbus and could be found as Far East as the distant reaches of Russia. The Vikings were known as raiders. Pretty much people who captured and overthrew. These “raiders” facilitated many changes throughout the lands from economics to warfare. (Live Science)
Vikings founded settlements for three centuries along the coasts and rivers of mainland Europe, Ireland, Great Britain, Normandy, the Shetland, Orkney, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. They went south to North Africa and east to Russia and Constantinople. Vikings went as looters, traders, or mercenaries. Viking voyages decreased with the introduction of Christianity to Scandinavia in the late 10th and 11th century. (The Middle Ages)
There were two distinct classes of Vikings a
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...Vikings
Typically, the image of a Viking is a barbaric, bearded man plundering and destroying a neighboring village. This is actually the stereotypical viewpoint. In actuality, Vikings, have a very different image. For example, Vikings did not wear furry boots or furry armor, they did not have horned helmets, they invaded Britain, and they also were the first to discover America! They were also experts in nautical technology, crafts, trading, warfare and many other skills (Jonsson 1). With all of these traits, the Vikings seem like an unstoppable force in the European continent. But, who were the Vikings? The Vikings were actually venturesome seafarers. This means that they were travelers who were constantly exploring and looking for new areas of land. There roots can be traced all the way back to 6000 B.C. were nomadic men traveled in primitive crafts up the Denmark coast. Fast forward two millennia and these nomadic people have established permanent homes, but still using the boat for food and travel. As stated before, they were not just raiders, although they did do this frequently, but they were actually expert traders, trading all around the world. It wasn't until around 793 A.D. that a Viking explosion took place in northern Europe (Jonsson 2). Raids began to take place on neighboring villages and their places of worship. To some this is the only type of...